More than a year ago, the Snyder Cut version of Justice League caused a stir. But obviously not everything was rosy (far from it) on the community side.
The Rolling Stone newspaper has published a long investigation into the sequence of events that allowed the Snyder Cut to take place. And obviously there are some very dirty things… Especially in terms of the behavior of some fans of the DC/Snyder community and of Snyder himself.
The context
Just to put things in context, the Snyder Cut for Justice League is a Director’s Cut of sorts. Indeed, in 2017 Snyder himself steps away from filming for family reasons and it is director Joss Whedon who takes up the torch. Whedon worked on the film even before Snyder left, as studio Warner was unhappy with Snyder’s work. With the theatrical critical failure of the film, Snyder begins to fuel himself via social networks the possibility of his own version of the film, embarking with him many fans. This is where it all begins.
The Beginning of Snyder and Fan Maneuvers
We then see the hashtags #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and #RestoreTheSnyderVerse flourish on the networks.as well as the beginning of calls for boycotts and even demands for the dismissal of certain Warner executives and even death threats… DC Comics president Diane Nelson even had to delete her Twitter account after positively criticizing the Joker movie, which is not part of the DC universe wanted by Snyder.
Thus, the Rolling Stone newspaper explains that the cyber-harassment campaign was so intense that the entire security division of the studio had to work on the file. Investigations have even been ordered to verify the origin of certain messages. We can learn, for example, via the survey that Warner estimates that at least 13% of the accounts that participated in online conversations around the Snyder Cut are fake accounts. However, an analyst from cybersecurity firm Graphika also explains that the core of Snyder Cut’s business is still done by real people. It may be even more amazing.
Snyder’s behavior itself problematic?
The newspaper also claims to have spoken with about twenty people, most of whom explain that Zack Snyder himself participated in manipulating the Snyder Cut campaign online. Moreover, Snyder’s behavior is also to be questioned since, for example, he would have embarked before his departure of the files of his film without the agreement of Warner.
Worse, Rolling Stone specifies that Snyder made pressure with Warner so that the names of Geoff Johns and Jon Berg disappear from the Snyder Cut. The director would have even threatened Warner to mount all this on the networks if this was not the case.
In short, a dark story for a dark film.